Sling Media Slingbox SOLO (SB260-100) Reviews
Average Customer Rating - 3.7 out of 5 stars
241 customer reviews
Incredible Little Box, December 2, 2007
I have heard the Slingbox advertised for several years and have often wondered what the appeal was--with other technologies like tv tuner cards and portable media players, I never saw the point. Recently, however, I purchased a 3.5G smartphone and found there be Slingbox client software available for it. The idea of watching television anywhere from my phone [with an unlimited data plan] intrigued me enough to make the relatively minor investment in a Slingbox.
After trying it, I can only say it is incredible. Having a device in my pocket that can receive small screen is amazing, and the fact that it is not some choppy over-the-air signal but a beautifully clear signal with access to an entire cable tv feed, on demand services, program guides, and recorded programs is mind-blowing. Even from a laptop or other client, having access to all the channels and features you generally have in your living room, no matter where you are, makes the Slingbox much more powerful than a simple tuner card. For those so motivated, it is also possible to spy on what your kids are watching when you're not home (or annoy them by changing the channel).
I purchased the Slingbox SOLO because of the built-in high-definition component input. Because I was eager to set-up the box, I initially connected it with a simple composite connection--later, I dug-out an RGB component cable and connected it that instrument instead, but found with the lower resolution and compression artifacts introduced by the Slingbox I didn't notice a significant difference and ended-up switching back just to eliminate some cables and to take advantage of the cable-box's ability to convert everything to alike aspect ratio to avoid having to switch the client. The video quality looks perfect on the cell phone [although I don't think anything less than 3.5G service would work well] but from a PC or laptop, the picture quality is similar to a high quality standard-definition tuner card, even when viewing a high-definition source.
Setting-up the Slingbox was categorically simple and almost completely automatic; it does require a pc on the same network. The box was detected and video was working as soon as set-up started. A huge variety of equipment is supported, with pc client software displaying a remote that looks almost identical to the actual equipment remote. I did not hold to make any adjustments to the box's IR signal timing to the cable box and it has worked flawlessly without ever missing a command.
Much Improved Over The Pro, October 2, 2007
I have spent the last couple hours playing with the new Slingbox Solo. In comparison to the Slingbox pro I like this current model better. It is about 1/2 the size and does not need an extra dongle for HD video.
The software to setup the device is very easy and very fast. Video quality on a home network is superb. Internet is not bad but depends on how much upstream bandwidth you enjoy available.
The only gripe I have with it is the unit does not come with any component cables. This however is a small gripe.
Overall this device is well worth the money if you like watching TV.
Hopefully slingmedia will come out with an iPhone client soon.
Known problem that Sling won't fix, February 27, 2009
I've have a Solo for 17 months (purchased from Amazon on 10/1/2007). It worked fine for almost 15 months, then a firmware upgrade occurred and the box has been flaky ever since. Slingmedia has a notice on their support site that this is a known problem (the notice has be there for at least 2 months). But they admit they can't solve it.
See slingmedia support site subject "Streaming in SlingPlayer slows and doesn't recover"
My advice...great idea...was a great product...don't buy.
**Remote Viewing** - Slingbox vs HAVA, November 20, 2008
This review is for the purpose of remote viewing only. I only use the HAVA and Sling Box on a completely separate internet nouns from where they are stationed. Sometimes this is across town and sometimes it is on the other side of the world. These devices do allow you to stream locally, on your local network, but I do not do that often enough to comment on it.
I bought these devices so I could get all of my local cable channels when I was away from home, whether that is at the organization, traveling for business, or on vacation. Many times I like to catch a local sports game, football, basketball, soccer, and no matter how hard you try you can't get it in other locations of the country. ABC, NBC, and CBS all own regions, and different games are broadcast for each region. So even though the game you want to see is on regular TV in your home town, it might not be on that same station on the other side of the country. I also use the On Demand portion of my cable box quite frequently. This is nice because I can remotely watch anything that is in the on demand section.
I own had the Sling Box Solo for about 2 months now. It has the 2.0 software with all the latest software and firmware updates. I have had the HAVA Titanium HD Wifi element for about a week. I bought the HAVA because of the ability to plug a separate hard drive into the unit to record remotely for viewing at a later time. The HAVA also has the latest software, 1.8 latest firmware etc... On a side make a note of, if you buy the HAVA, you must be hooked up by cat 5 or Ethernet to update the firmware. It will fail over wifi.
Comparison - Both of these units do what they are designed to do. One does it much better in my opinion than the other.
Streaming - I am talking about this first because this is the most important capacity of any of these type of units. If you can't stream properly, the element is worthless, or at least very annoying to watch. The internet connection where the units are located is through COX, and I believe it is rated at 768K up and around 15mbps down. The only number you need to be concerned near is the UP speed of the location where the units are located. The Sling box blows the HAVA away in this area. If you were to watch these units for an hour each, this is what you would see. The HAVA unit will enjoy about a 5 to 10 second delay from the live stream. While watching, the picture will cut in and out for about 10 seconds every 2 to 5 minutes. This might not sound like much, but it gets very annoying, especially if you watching a spectator sport and you miss a big play. Every time the picture cuts out, it comes back on at the lowest bitrate and works itself back up, so the picture quality is very poor for at least 10 seconds from the time it comes back on. The audio does cut out as well, but not as often. The Sling box is moderately different. If you watch it for an hour, it might stutter once or twice for a second, but it has never cut out on me with a solid connection. Even with fairly slow internet connections in some hotels, once the Sling box has fully buffered it very not often cuts out.
Picture - The picture clarity is very close on these two units. When I hook up my laptop to a Samsung A750 LCD 52" it appears as if the HAVA has a slight edge over the Sling box when the HAVA is not cutting out. Keep in mind this edge is so small that most people will not notice it. On a laptop you can't see any difference.
Sound - This is a huge nouns to myself. I generally buy the best or very close to the best audio equipment available, whether it is for my house, car, mp3 player, or headphones. If you are an audiophile in the slightest way, you will be severely disappointed with the HAVA unit. It sounds like an AM radio station on a 1970's motor. The highs and lows are missing, and what you are left with is a very bland and dull sound. The Sling box again is the opposite. It is very clear, about 95% of the original broadcast nouns, and has a full rich sound to it. If you would like to get a better idea of what I am talking about, go to you car and turn the radio on. Tune it to a strong FM concentrate and listen for a minute. Then switch it over to an AM channel. Hear the difference? That is at least the level of separation between these two units.
Software - The Sling box software is nice because it gives you an entire TV guide for your local cable provider. You can double click on what you want to watch and the Sling box changes channels. The HAVA does not have this guide. The Remote control interface is similar on both unit. The only difference I have notice is that on the Sling box the A B and C buttons do not work correctly with my Motorola cable box. This doesn't come into play very often but it can be a pain to function in some screens.
Changing Channels - Again, the Sling box blows the HAVA away. The Sling box take about 1 to 2 seconds to do what you tell it to. When I first started using the Sling box I thought this was slow until I received the HAVA. The HAVA takes anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds for the channel to change. A lot of this has to do near the longer delay in the stream on the HAVA, but either way, it is a long process. If you go to watch something On Demand, it my require ten or more button pushes of the remote to get to where you want. This can take upwards of 5 minutes on the HAVA. On the sling box, you could do like thing in 30 seconds.
Recording - This is really the only area where the HAVA truly wins. The Sling box currently does not have the ability to dictation. It will give you a buffer, so you can rewind the show you were watching if you missed something, or pause it for a few minutes but that is all. The HAVA functions as a true DVR. You have to hook up a separate hard drive to the unit through a USB port, but once you have that it works great. This facet runs independently, so you don't have to have a computer on for it to record. The other thing you can do is record directly onto your laptop. So if you were watching something and wanted to record it to watch following you could. You can even view those recorded shows that are on your laptop when you don't have internet, like on a plane or in a car.
Mobile Phone - I have an HTC Touch Pro on Sprint. EVDO rev A, windows mobile 6.1 I have solitary tested the HAVA on my phone. It works ok. The phone must be in portrait mode, not widescreen, and you get about 2 frames per second. The audio comes through uninterrupted for the most part but the video continuously cuts out. I have not used the Sling box software on this phone but I have seen it run on a HTC Mogul, and it ran great, much better than the HAVA.
Overall, I believe the Sling Box win hands down. If you are really into recording then maybe the HAVA is for you, but with its stream and sound issues, the recordings are not very fun to watch. I find the Sling box pleasurable to watch. The HAVA I find to be annoying and irritating which is not worthy considering I am watching it to try and relax. My HAVA will be getting sent back for a refund.
The reason I am giving the Slingbox 4 stars instead of 5 is for the lack of recording ability, and that you have to pay $30 additional for the mobile software.
slingbox is a great concept but the company is disastrous, May 10, 2010
first - AMAZON IS AMAZING. when slingmedia would not help me, amazon totally stepped up and took care of a problem for me that they did not need to. thanks amazon and i didn't know you could make me a bigger fan than i already was but you have.
second - i have have the same problem with slingbox solo that other one star reviewers have had. i too just had my unit for under a year and was still beneath warranty but like others, technical support gave me a total run around and would not give me an RMA and my options were to pay for a tech support consult or buy an extended warranty... but wtf, i was STILL UNDER WARRANTY - why would i want to purchase an EXTENDED WARRANTY when i'm still under warranty very soon when the unit has failed?!
these are bad, disingenuous and sneaky people who want to nickel and dime you for every little thing. they don't care about customer satisfaction or their own commitments and you will spot that their culture is one that is absolutely closed and stonewalled.
in every way that amazon shines for their dedication to their customers, slingbox radiates bad faith.
this technology is not worthy of these guys and it is my fondest wish that they fail so that someone bigger, better and more committed to their customers become the standard bearer.
i loved my slingbox and i loved the technology. they had a die hard fan in me. but with one phone call to a tech support person far more concerned with selling an extended warranty for a product that was already lower than warranty when it failed... man, they have earned my enmity.
as for a recommendation, it's a tough call - if it works and never fails, it's great. but if you need to have ANY kind of backup from slingmedia, you are completely out of luck.
UPDATE - for me, it WAS impossible capacitors: [...]
paired w/ direct tv and Symbian phone, December 28, 2007
awesome awesome device.
i hooked it up using a direct tv box and started watching on my laptop wireless computer and on my phone at work.
it took about 30 mins of set up because i had to physically connect the router to my laptop while the slingbox updated its firmware. Then I had to find the Slingbox ID (which is under the Edit portion of the Slingbox directory for your slingbox). And of course, install the slingbox app on the computer.
it tired to detect and automatically configure my router but i had the UPnP feature turned off so I had log onto the router and turn that on past it started working outside of my network.
i primarily use the slingobx on my Nokia N75 on a 3G connection (w/ the unlimited data plan) w/c makes it glitchfree. I tried the MobiTV app on the phone and that was a disaster. Not only do you have to pay $10/mnth but the 'live' tv had roughly a 5 second gap between the audio and the video. The news audio wasn't in sync with the video and to top it off, it was very pixelated. You wouldn't be able to read the bottom communication ticker AT ALL.
On the slingbox mobile, however, it is crystal clear and in SYNC. To top it off, when I'm watching using the EDGE network, it would constantly buffer every 30-40secs BUT it would continue the audio AND video to where it stopped so you don't miss a second! Plus, it's crystal clear and everything on the phone screen is VERY readable. And it can be viewed FULL screen w/c dispalys the video sideways! And unlike MobiTV, it doesn't keep asking every 20mins if you want to hold watching and if you dont' respond it turns off. Slingbox keeps streaming until you exit the app.
I was initially very skeptical at the viability of the 'internet tv' based on my experience with MobiTV but this is the real deal. An actual TV broadcast on your phone/ computer and you own complete control of the channels! Everything from accessing the tv guide to changing settings!
The only con I have for now is the fact that if you're watching at home, you wouldn't know somebody is watching using the slingbox until they change the channel. I will they had a feature that indicated it's in use on the home tv.
Also, you can't use the slingbox in two locations at one time. So if I was watching on my phone, I can't use the computer to watch it simultaneously. Only one at a time is permitted.
And since my phone is a flip phone, the app closes when I close the phone. I wish it didn't. But then again I'm guessing it's memory intensive so that might be a good impression. But I can't listen to the XM channel with the phone open (the N75 is huge when flipped open.
And finally, I don't like that the phone app is not free (while the comp app is free). At least there's a 30day trial. But I guess they have to make their money somewhere.
Small gripes.
Just make sure you enjoy broadband (both ways) to enjoy this device. So if you're on the edge about buying... don't! Go out and get it!
Innovative product with no monthly fee, December 5, 2007
These days I don't expect much to be free. Well finally here is a product that you buy once and you have no recurring fee. This product follows through on adjectives of its promises. You can watch your cable TV anywhere you can get through a firewall on the Internet (which isn't everywhere). The video quality is not HDTV by Slingbox's own admission; nevertheless, it's pretty good quality. The cable and phone companies must hate this product because they don't get to charge twice for the same service - BooHoo!. If you get the impression bad, you can always send me a check. I despise TIVO and DVRs that want me to pay for the box and then charge a monthly fee forever. I like the Slingbox much better because I can access all of my premium channels and On-Demand for free. I suspect somebody will digit out a way to charge for this device under the guise of copyright infringement or some other digital rights claim. This is a good device for a fair price and has no recurring fee. BTW: I strongly suggest you use a hardwire to connect this to the Internet (or your router). Instead of spending $100 for the Slinglink or something similar, buy a Cat-5 or Cat-6 cable for under $10 and forget the headaches involved near powerline or wireless Internet connections that are hard to setup and are problematic.
Fantastic and amazing, December 27, 2007
I purchased the slingbox solo after reading much about it. I have HD and this allows me to access and stream HD channels without having to buy any extra pieces. Set up was quick, as Slingbox walks you through everything step by step. The merely problem I ran into was setting up remote viewing. I clicked on chat, and typed back and forth with a customer service rep. She could not solve the problem and asked if I would let her take control of my computer. I hated doing that but let her. She was not competent to resolve the problem, but by watching her click around, I figured out what was wrong. I thanked her and hung up. I took control of my desktop and had the remote viewing part up and running quickly. I wrote this review to explain what happened with my setup and help others too.
I enjoy a wired/wireless router that assigns ip addresses. I had changed my router to have a very uncommon ip address. The slingbox picked that up, but assigned itself an address that ended in 273 if I remember correctly. My router assigned the slingbox an ip address which ended differently. Once I chose manual set up during the slingbox walkthrough and typed over the ip address the slingbox have during set up everything was up and running. I guess I just had a fussy router.
Slingbox is amazing. We went home for Christmas and accessed our Slingbox easily from a coffeehouse and from my parents house. My husband installed mobile software on his dash and was watching a game while we hit the sale December 26. Needless to say we were both happy to be grabbing great bargains while able to check the score and see to a favorite team at the same time. I significantly recommend this product.
In the fall, our oldest heads to college. Now we can tape his favorite shows on the DVR and he can still watch them from his lap top. Great product.
SlingBox Rocks, March 28, 2008
The Good
---------------
The technology works! Using a Sprint Air card I was able to keep tuned into my TV while driving in the country. This is probably the worst satchel scenario for remote reception. I was only getting about 100K download speed with occasional dropouts. No other streamer that I have tested would work under these conditions.
I was running 320-240 res under these conditions. With faster more stable connection you can run better.
At home on my home network I run 640x480 resolution with a maximum stream rate of 6000Kbps with Near CD quality Audio.
It works! It works! It Works!!
The Bad
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This box did not come with a software CD or SVid cable. So I had to dig one up. I have the player software from SlingBox AV that I had tested. In any case you will need to download the latest software from the SlingMedia website. I had to dig up an aditional Svid cable.
The Ugly
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Couple things that I realy hate about the SlingBox technology.
-Max Res 640x480 res
-Only one connection allowed at a time. If you try to connect and someone else is watching the slingbox you will go and get a Buisy indication. Thats why it is called a Personal TV Viewer.
-No Recording Option available. There are some third party venders offering this at a cost of $49.
-Mobile Player software is not free. You must pay $29 for wach mobile device you want to install the player software on.
Final Thoughts
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All this said, I still love the SlingBox. I had originaly purchased the Slingbox AV but found its connection options limited with out a pass through nouns. I now have two devices set up. Dish Sat box and Panasonic E55 DVD recorder/player. I can remotely change the channel and start my recorder from anywhere in the world that I have an internet connection.
BTW this box retails for $179 and I picked mine up for $159. Thats only $30 more than I paid for the AV.
My Son Can't Thank Me Enough, December 9, 2008
My son, who in a minute lives in N.C, missed watching his favorite sport teams from New England, especially the Patriots. I purchased him a Slingbox for his birthday in Nov. He absolutely loves it. He has it connected from my TV in MA to his computer in NC to his TV in the 'man's room'. He said the picture clarity is terrific. This may be due to the fact that the TV at my house is surrounded by high definition, as well as his new computer. Last Sunday, the Patriots Club in Raleigh, NC was able to view the game thru my son's laptop onto the Club's TV!! (That particular winter sport was not being televise last week in NC) You can just imagine how excited the fans were watching the game, as economically as the New England commercials!!
Setting this up was relatively easy. But there are some things worth noting. Nowhere on the box or in the directions did it mention that the TV and computer (router) be in the same room. This did delay the set up since I did not want wires running from room to room. I purchased a Slinglink Turbo (about $80.00) and plugged it into a wall outlet in respectively room. It 'bridged' the connection without wires. Also, you must use a TV that has a receiver, not just a spare TV with a cable connection. While the Singbox is being used, I either monitor the game, or watch another TV, since only one station can be watched while the Slingbox is in use. So far, this has not been a problem, but I did feel you should get the integral picture in this Slingbox review.
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